Weather
by Namesake
Summary: Leon hadn't always known Cloud. Now that he does, he's wondering if he's better off NOT knowing the blond. Friends? They're not friends; and Leon-NOT-Squall isn't admitting to anything. Cloud isn't too sure who he is on any given day, but the Colosseum is fun. Tifa, with good intensions, is messing everything up while Aerith seems to know what's going to happen before it does.
1. Cloud I

**A/N:** So let me give some words on this plot-child; this whole idea started when TheUltimateChefofDestruction and I got curious, since Cloud and My-Name-Is-**Leon**-NOT-Squall, are, technically speaking, atmospheric phenomenons. So, going to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, we looked up 'Cloud' and 'Squall' respectively and proceeded to laugh our arses off. Then an idea was born: using the definitions as prompts to write a Leon-Cloud centric fic; pairing platonic/yaoi not withstanding. That I haven't decided yet.

Enjoy~!

* * *

Main Entry: **1cloud**

Pronunciation: **\****ˈ****kla****u****̇****d\**

Function: _noun_

Usage: _often attributive_

Etymology: Middle English, rock, cloud, from Old English _clūd;_ perhaps akin to Greek _gloutos_ buttock

Date: 14th century

**1****:** a visible mass of particles of condensed vapor (as water or ice) suspended in the atmosphere of a planet (as the earth) or moon

* * *

The first time that Leon "Not Squall" Leonheart met one Cloud Strife was shortly after a young girl appeared in Hollow Bastion. She was a cute kid if a bit...odd. There was just things that she Knew, that one of her age just shouldn't. When Leon had found her out by the edge of the Bastion near the Crystal Fissure, she had been crying and folded up so small behind a rock next to a crystal Leon had had to poke her with his gunblade as he couldn't fit into her hiding spot.

To his disbelief, she had replied with a, "Not now, Squall."

Since no one knew What in the Darkness was listening, and the Sorceresses had an uncanny ability to cause his life trouble, his automatic knee-jerk response was, "My name is Leon," with a Scowl on his face. He didn't particularly care about being reminded of his past life no matter how much he loved the freedom of being a SEED.

To his surprise, the girl pulled her arms away from her face revealing the greenest eyes that Leon had ever seen. They were filled with sadness, confusion, and quite a bit of defiance.

"Leon? But your name is Squall," She replied.

"I introduced myself as Leon," Leon repeated, "because my name is Leon."

"Your soul says and sings of your name as Squall," the girl defiantly retorted. "Squall Leonheart."

Leon just stared at her. Hardly anyone knew his real name and he wanted to keep it that way. Merlin knew because he just _knew_ things; and that had more to do with his affinity with magic than anything else. This girl must be a mage of some kind from wherever she came from.

"There are...things...that still sometimes look for me," Leon replied.

Sudden comprehension dawned in those green, green eyes. "Ah! So you hide your Soul name and have a taken name for misdirection! I know that!"

"What is your name, then?" Leon asked giving the girl a skeptical look, as if he didn't believe her stated comprehension of misdirection, as the girl wiggled out of her niche. She ended up climbing out and sitting above the rock. Now that the exSEED could see her properly, the girl looked about eight, maybe ten years old.

With an impish grin and a _knowing_ that filled those green eyes making them much too old for her face, the girl replied with, "My name is...Aerith is close enough I suppose. Aerith Gainsborough." She paused, giving him a haunted look through her long lashes that, were she ten years older, might have been mistaken for coy. "Things are looking for me, too."

Leon, since she seemed to understand and Know things, figured he'd best be blunt with her. A lot of people that had been showing up recently were shocked at what they had been through and what the Darkness had done to their worlds. "Did you come here because of the Darkness?"

She gave him a confused look. "Darkness?"

Leon sighed. So she didn't get Darkness? He explained it as best as he could, and then sudden comprehension burned in those green eyes.

"Oh! No, my Planet wasn't swallowed by Darkness," she assured. Leon was about to ask her, why then, was she here before she took a breath and continued. "I died in the quest to prevent the Darkness from getting a solid foothold."

Leon just looked at her.

She looked around her. "Mama, not my Mother mind you, always told me about the Lifestream, but I don't think this is quite it, but I can still hear its singing."

Leon watched as a vacant expression crossed her face for a few moments. The green of her eyes brightened a bit and seemed to dim at the same time before a few hard blinks and Aerith focusing on the Here and Now.

"Nope, my Planet is still there; I'm still connected," she gave him a brilliant smile. "They prevented Meteor and defeated him!"

Leon just nodded. What did you say to something like that? "That's good."

She nodded.

They stared at each other for a few minutes. Aerith smiled as swung her feet about as if the fact they didn't reach the ground was novelty and something to be explored.

"Want some food?" Leon finally asked. He knew he had been starving when he had arrived here.

"Sure!"

And with that, Leon "Not Squall" Leonheart forgot about the rest of his patrol and took the kid to get some grub. Even with the potential of monsters, there were just some priorities that needed addressing first.

* * *

Aerith had been with them for a few years. Everyone in the vicinity gravitated to Merlin's house whenever Aerith baked, and she just seemed to know who would come by and what flavour pies to make. People from other worlds would commission her for baked goods, catering and the occassional wedding or birthday party. In that time, Leon watched as people that Aerith knew from her world popped up.

First was an uncouth, chain smoking, tea drinking disheveled...gentleman...that Aerith introduced as Cid Highwind. The man was good with anything with an engine and double so if the thing flew.

Next had been a hyperactive child that had introduced herself as Yuffie Kisaragi, before pulling the biggest shuriken Leon had ever seen off her back and chucking it at pigeon that looked suspiciously like it was going to bomb them.

The last had been a beautiful woman that had reminded him of Ri-someone from his own planet.

With extensively larger assets.

The fact that the young woman, after she had introduced herself as Tifa Lockheart, was wearing a leather frock over short, stretchy shorts, probably didn't help.

One day, when all of them were at dinner, Aerith had paused in the middle of conversation, eyes unfocusing. When she came back to herself, she just breathed, "_he's_ here."

The others seemed to make their own conclusion but when she continued where she left off, the others continuing with her. To Leon, they seemed as if they were waiting for a particular person.

The person they were waiting for had the decency to show up as a storm was just breaking over the Crystal Fissure. Aerith had whooped that "_he's _here!" before running out the door into a _very_ charged atmosphere with angry clouds on the horizon. The people that were in the house at the time, Tifa and Leon himself, had run after her. A few days ago she had been quite sick and being out in this storm couldn't be good for her health.

Near to where Leon had found Aerith, a flickering shadow was becoming more and more solid with every bolt of Lightning and crash of Thunder. The blond figure had the good grace to gasp and sit up, hand going to his chest. He winced, but it seemed a phantom pain as the man's hand came away perfectly clean.

"Cloud!" Aerith howled in delight as she flung herself at the man.

Startled, brilliant blue eyes looked up and reflexes just as fast as the lightning from the storm caught the happily laughing girl as she launched herself at him.

"Aeris?" Cloud asked in disbelief. She nodded.

"Zack?" Cloud asked again. Aerith just shrugged but she whispered something in the encroaching darkness that made a ghost of a smile flit across the man's face.

"Cloud?" Leon queried.

Blue eyes snapped to him, and Leon got the distinct impression of what a gazelle felt like being studied by a cheetah. There was something slightly feral to those eyes that Leon realized now were casting a faint blue hue around the area.

They glowed. The man had glowing eyes.

Upon standing, he wasn't that much taller than Leon was himself. The man's impressive blond hair, very much resembling a chocobo's crest, was, in valiant spikes and cowlicks about his head, what made him seem so tall.

The sword was impressive though.

He seemed to fade into the darkness around them, and that's when Leon felt the intelligence, the _focus_, that denoted Darkeness, or something of it, lurking in the storm.

Cloud scowled before pushing Aerith at Tifa, leaping up, and slashing his sword about in an impressive display of skill. The dead pieces of monsters landed about the party with dull thunks. Cloud gracefully landed, sword out. The lighting illuminated a shining gauntlet on one arm, a shadowy shape off his shoulder, and made his cloak the colour of old blood.

"We should go inside," Cloud said as his glowing eyes, all the more eerie with how the lightning washed everything else out. "Squall, take point; I'll take rear."

"My name is Leon," the exSEED growled as he took point. A familiar confused look crossed the man's face, and he looked, of all people, at Aerith. She just shrugged and tilted her head. Cloud just shrugged back and nodded.

"Okay then, Leon; let's mosey."

For materializing out of a storm, the man sure wasn't impressive.

It was when they finally made it to Merlin's house, and Leon got a good look at the man-about five foot seven inches without the hair-that the cloak was more a red shroud wrapped around the man's neck and wing-_wing_-was actually being partially hidden behind it. All the buckles, leather trappings and bandages seemed to be holding the man together. Now that there was proper light, Cloud looked exhausted.

"Need a bed?" Leon asked. He found it ironic that, coming from an orphanage, he seemed to be picking up strays.

"Please," Cloud replied. He hefted his sword and followed Leon down the hallway and to a room that had materialized as they were out. One good aspect of a magical house.

"This is your room," Leon said as he opened it. Cloud paused upon entering it. The rooms always seemed to hold a bit of memory from their home Planets. How it did that, Leon didn't have the slightest clue.

"So," Cloud said as he placed his sword in a corner near the bed, "if your name isn't Squall, what do you call yourself?"

"You people and your Soul name shit," Leon griped as he leaned against the door jamb. "I'm known about here as Leon; Leon Leonheart if you want."

Cloud tried to hide his smirk in his cowl he had yet to remove. Leon caught it, though, and, with a Scowl of his own, asked Cloud, "What's your name?"

Cloud gave him a lopsided grin, eyes glowing brighter if at all possible. "Cloud; Cloud Strife."

They just kind of looked at each other, something niggling in the backs of their minds; that feeling you get when someone asks you for a word after giving you the description-and you know you _know_ the word they need. It's on the tip of your tongue, but you just can't recall it; that's the feeling both exSEED and exSOLDIER had.

"Goodnight," Cloud finally said.

Leon nodded and excused himself shutting the door quietly behind him.

Cloud Strife, huh?

Something was going to happen.

The question now, was, whether that something was good or bad; for them all or just one of them.

* * *

_posted 13February2013_


	2. Cloud II

**A/N:** My birthday was yesterday and boy, was it awesome! This was supposed to be published last week and updated, like, biweekly or something, but that didn't happen, lol. Here's chapter two; with chapter three following shortly.

Enjoy~!

* * *

Main Entry: **1cloud**

Pronunciation: **\****ˈ****kla****u****̇****d\**

Function: _noun_

Usage: _often attributive_

Etymology: Middle English, rock, cloud, from Old English _clūd;_ perhaps akin to Greek _gloutos_ buttock

Date: 14th century

**2****:** something resembling or suggesting a cloud: as **a****:** a light filmy, puffy, or billowy mass seeming to float in the air a _cloud_ of blond hair a ship under a _cloud_ of sail **b ****(1)****:** a usually visible mass of minute particles suspended in the air or a gas **(2)****:** an aggregation of usually obscuring matter especially in interstellar space **(3)****:** an aggregate of charged particles (as electrons) c**:** a great crowd or multitude **:** swarm _clouds_ of mosquitoes

* * *

Cloud had been at the Bastion for a little over a week now.

Leon had seen him at meals.

Three times.

Ten days and three meals.

With a frustrated sigh, Leon rifled through the kitchen; grabbing baked goods or leftovers from lunch and dinner the night before. Neither of which Cloud had appeared at. With a tray of food and goodies, Leon made his way down the hall to Cloud's room. There was a word inscribed on the door. When he had asked, Tifa had said it was a few words but it was "in the Old Language" and she didn't know enough to guess what the words meant.

Whatever that meant.

The letters were graceful, if archaic in look. Leon looked at them a moment longer before he rapped on the door.

Nothing.

He knocked again. "Cloud?"

Still nothing. "Strife?"

Knocking once more, out of courtesy, Leon let himself in and stopped just passed the threshold. The door clicked softly shut behind him.

Cloud was sprawled out on his bed, fast asleep. His hair was sprawled just as gracefully over the pillow. Leon didn't know if _he_ would find the particular position comfortable; stretched languid across the bed on his side but twisted at the waist so his face was almost buried in the pillow. There was a strange gathering of shadow on the blond's left shoulder that seemed to dance with the shadowed light that came through the window.

The red cowl was hung on one of the bed posts; the brass gauntlet on a chair nearby.

If there was ever a time that Cloud resembled his namesake, it was now.

Knowing, as a fellow warrior, how precious sleep was, Leon made a careful exit. Aerith had also said that his departure from their world had been difficult as he had been trying to keep someone named Vincent with him, but the Darkness had separated them. Leon had never heard of someone fighting with the Darkness and surviving; that made Cloud special in and of itself.

With a quiet click of the door shutting behind him, Leon made his way down the hall. He had done his good deed for the day; everyone else be damned.

* * *

As the door clicked shut, blue eyes snapped open. The shadows hovering around and about his shoulders coalesced in a leathery, black, bat-like wing he had seen on Chaos before the...well Before.

Blue eyes were about to close again when a breeze from the window carried a delicious and familiar smell. Dragging himself out of bed, Cloud surveyed the tray before him. He recognized Aerith's cooking, but didn't know if it was from his own memories, Zack's or Sephiroth's that prompted the familiarity. Finding several things that appealed to all his Parts, and how Leon Not Squall knew, Cloud would never find out. As it was, all of him was happy with this food arrangement.

He had been sleeping far too much, but that was because of the difficult transition from The Planet to Hollow Bastion and fending off the Darkness while he was at it. Happily eating the pie, Cloud pondered the state of his mind as it was. When he had first gotten here, it was everything he could do to just move correctly and form coherent speech patterns. He had no idea how he had made it from the shiny crystal place to the house he was currently staying in, and Aerith told him every day that he asked that had walked here.

It was like getting everything in his head put in a box and shaken up; now he had to piece everything back together and put it away. Sleep was best for that.

But food was good, too, otherwise sleep turned from completing one's puzzle mind to Standby; waiting for sustenance. The food was wolfed down much faster than he should have eaten, which only told Cloud that he needed to make an appearance at more meals than he was, even though he was only eating and sleeping and Mako could only do so much.

He did savour the pie though; there was no way that one could inhale that lovely, flakey, buttery golden brown crust with the home made filling. He thought it was mulberry-blueberry, pretty sure in fact, but he was one hundred percent sure it was delicious.

Moaning, Cloud collapsed onto the bed as he licked his fingers.

Aerith's pies were the best.

There was something though, at the back of his mind; a different something that didn't have to do with the light, didn't involve My Name Is Leon Not Squall. Fighting the Darkness while trying to keep Vincent and his own darkness from The Darkness had been draining and not altogether successful. With every success, Cloud had learned, there was a sacrifice. Cloud had lost Vincent; the other man's Parts, his darkness, had connected him too closely to The Darkness and when that...Entity, Thing...had showed up, Chaos had almost exploded out of Vincent to challenge it.

Aerith's reassurance that the man was okay where he was, Cloud had accepted that Vincent had managed to survive against that Thing.

Cloud hadn't escaped unscathed, as the wing settling on his shoulder proved. There was something Dark about him now despite his Light and innocent colouring. It purred and growled in the back of his mind, his soul, and the Zack voice in his head thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world to antagonize.

Resettling himself, Cloud yawned as he prepared for another nap. Perhaps he'd wake up for dinner...

* * *

_posted 13February2012_


	3. Cloud III

**A/N:** This is the last part of the first definition for 'Cloud'. I'm thinking that the next few chapters will be for 'squall'. I'm graduating on the 20th, so don't expect an update until the end of March, beginning of April.

* * *

Main Entry: **1cloud**

Pronunciation: **\****ˈ****kla****u****̇****d\**

Function: _noun_

Usage: _often attributive_

Etymology: Middle English, rock, cloud, from Old English _clūd;_ perhaps akin to Greek _gloutos_ buttock

Date: 14th century

**3****:**something that has a dark, lowering, or threatening aspect _clouds_ of war a _cloud_ of suspicion **4****:** something that obscures or blemishes a _cloud_ of ambiguity **5****:** a dark or opaque vein or spot (as in marble or a precious stone)

* * *

In all the time that Cloud had been at Hollow Bastion, he had only recently been informed of the knowledge of inter-world travel. Cloud, upon being informed, was given a thorough rundown of all the worlds and what one could do on them and it was no surprise that The Coliseum piqued his interest the most. And when Cloud almost blew up the Gummi ship _before_ takeoff, garnering pity even from the Moogles, he was dropped off wherever he wanted to go.

So when Leon got a call from Coliseum Security informing him he needed to come pick up one of his citizens before they destroy the Arena, the exSEED was intimately curious. No one he knew of was currently there.

"Something up?" Tifa chirped, plopping into the seat next to him. She looked to be drinking a milkshake of some kind.

"The Coliseum called," Leon informed her. "Said I needed to come get someone."

Tifa froze. Leon raised his eyebrow. She started swearing.

"That good?" he asked.

"I dropped Cloud off there this morning."

He contemplated what he knew of the denizens of the Coliseum and compared them to what he knew of Cloud. He pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to ward off a headache.

"Hyne dammit."

* * *

"I didn't know," the Coliseum bookie responded again. The woman was _scary_. **Much** more so than the one with green eyes that smiled all the time; with a face like that, who _knew_ what she were planning? But _this_ woman, dear Hades, was all soft curves and leather. LEATHER. Flowing hair, soft brown eyes; bruised and calloused knuckles from punching his guards two feet into the very solid quartz walls.

"I gave very, _very_ specific instructions as to how far he was to go in the tournament," the woman, Tifa the man thought she introduced herself as, forced out with a smile on her face.

"With him being new on the circuit, we didn't expect him to get as far as he did; certainly not into the C4 Gold bracket," he defended himself.

Tifa sighed as she pinched her nose. "Where is he?"

The man gulped; terrified. The bars that protected him from those that placed bets were little more than toothpicks to the power this woman held. "L-last I knew he w-was still bat-tling the One Winged Angle."

He screamed and ducked under the counter when the woman shrieked her displeasure. When the dust settled, the bookie tentatively glanced over the counter. He wasn't completely shocked to see the metal bars in front of his window bent, twisted and broken. He _was_ slightly surprised to see that the counter didn't really exist any more...neither did a good portion of the wall. This was why he hated working the last stall.

* * *

Tifa went back to the door to the stands to meet up with Leon. The stoic mercenary just gave her a blank look; probably had more to do with the thunderous expression on her own face. The crowd was particularly loud and vicious. Overhearing the bouncers, they were quite surprised that the crowd was still engaged with how long the single fight had been carrying on, from what Leon gathered.

"And?" He prompted when Tifa didn't say anything.

"He's apparently still fighting," came the terse reply.

This was going to be difficult. A deafening roar from the crowd, something about blood, filled the corridor and both fighter booked it past the bouncers-who were likewise glancing through the doors they were supposed to be guarding-and made for the railing that overlooked the arena.

Blood was liberally splattered about the arena, as were craters and scorch marks. Both combatants looked the worse for wear, and it was obvious to Tifa, as Leon was only gathering that there was a history between the two men, that this was going to take a few more hours to finish. If one of them didn't die first trying.

Knowing that if anyone entered the ring other than the listed combatants the match would be thrown and both fighters disqualified for that circuit, Tifa watched both Cloud and his opponent before launching into the air and punching both soundly in the side of the head.

Sephiroth merely flared his wing and caught himself. Cloud, however, went flying into the ground.

"Tifa! What in Ifrit's Fiendfire are you doing?" the blond demanded outraged.

"Taking you home, you _vargdropi_!" Tifa cursed.

Cloud looked surprised, not expecting to hear _his_ language as most of Nibelheim had spurned the Old Language and the Nibel Language his mother had spoken like Common. He had a small vocabulary of the Old Language and could speak Nibel fluently, as he had been the _last_ person to know it, or so he thought.

The buzzer for disqualification sounded.

If Cloud's glowing eyes could kill, Tifa, among many other people in and out of existence, would be very Dead. "I'm here, trying to earn munny, and you step in on my second day-_second day_-after they allowed me to fight after a stupid training programme I had to go through, and you _get me disqualified?!_ þú ilt kýrdóttir, þú eldhúsfífl!"

The Old Language was a surprise to Tifa, but from what little she knew-most of which were swear and cuss words-the fighter became infuriated. It took one well placed punch to halt the coarse, rounded language as the concussion his body was valiantly trying to heal became more severe; blue eyes dilating before they rolled up inot his head and Cloud collapsed in unconsciousness.

Groans and whoops sounded in the stands as non sanctioned bets changed hands.

Tifa hoisted Cloud onto her shoulders before leaping back into the stands towards Leon.

Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

When Cloud woke up a few hours later in his room, everyone in Hollow Bastion knew. The rage filled yell followed by swearing and that weird language again was a blatant giveaway. There was a thump, more swearing, and Leon sighed as he made tea and pulled out some food Aerith said to reheat when Cloud woke up. By the time the blond fighter had managed to drag himself out his room and to the kitchen, Tifa _and_ Aeith-surprisingly-had refused to heal what they had deemed 'minor injuries'; only setting the worst of broken bones and lightly wrapping them in bandages, Leon had his food ready.

"Tea or coffee?" Leon blandly asked. How he wished that hyperactive ninja was here for Cloud to chase around and hopefully kill. She was getting worse than the starlings and just as annoying.

" Hvarfar hleypr siálfr yður," Cloud muttered with venom.

Leon only raised an eyebrow. "Whatever it is, sounds like fun. Tea or Coffee?"

Cloud growled some more of that language, and something more gutteral, before grinding out, "tea," with an accent. Leon only nodded and gave Cloud the means with which to make a cup. The bastard wasn't going to get him doing domestics; he already did way too much of that as it was.

The exSEED watched as Cloud made the most violent actions possible as he made tea. As tea, and its preparations, were supposed to be a calming art, this particular show of violence made the process much more interesting. As did the continuous chain of oaths and curses that only stopped about halfway through the beverage.

"Why?"

Leon, who had been off somewhere in daydreams of hacking tea plants with his gunblade, blinked at the still furious, but no longer vehemently murderous, glowing blue eyes.

"Come again?"

"Why wasn't I told Sephiroth was here?" Cloud bit out.

"I didn't know that it was important," Leon said blandly.

That wasn't the right thing to say as Cloud's wing snapped into existence, blue eyes glowing brighter-and were they tinged green?-as Cloud spun around and punched the wall. Leon ducked to avoid a piece of sheetrock to the head. By the time the dust cleared, Cloud was nowhere to be seen. Aerith and Tifa chose that moment to return from their shopping escapade, stepping inside Merlin's to find they had a new means of entry into the living room from the kitchen.

"I see we have a new door," Tifa said dryly as Aerith took the bags into the rooms they needed to go.

"He didn't take it well," Leon replied, coughing a bit from the dust.

After dinner that night, Leon went to make his rounds about the Bastion. There was always a monster or two that decided to attack the town; he didn't know if it was a dare or desperation. Not too far into his rounds, Leon came upon a...mutilated...body. The monster was quite dead. Very dead, if he was guessing the type right and looking about at all the pieces.

Cloud was _very_ upset.

Continuing on his round, morbidly curious now, Leon kept running into more bodies in various stages of mutilation. More often than not they were dismembered and very dead from a large blade with brute force behind it; Cloud's MO. He was wondering how the blood and visceral would look about the next corpse-it was almost artful in its spattering-when his instincts flared as a body appeared behind him. Something pushed him out of the way as first a snarl then a roar echoed through the night. Cloud's gauntlet blocked a powerful swipe from the wolf-like creature while teeth were locked with his sword. The two pushed against each other before breaking apart. The wolf feinted left, Cloud jumped at the lunge it made from the right; his sword coming down in the middle of its back.

Leon was surprised when the creature lunged again and only got a deep wound down its left haunch instead of cleaved in two. Watching the fight, Leon lifted his Gunblade; waiting for an opening. It came when a second wolf-creature lunged out of the darkness; temporarily distracting Cloud. As Cloud cleaved that monster neatly in half, his first opponent took a limping leap at him; mouth open and aiming for the blond's throat.

The sound of the report from the Gunblade cut the air like thunder.

The monster gave a vague yelp as it was neatly killed; bullet to the brain.

Leon was suddenly prey to glowing blue eyes. He waited, Gunblade still up, to see if Cloud was still caught up in the fight or not; wondering if he'd be the next target for the exSOLDIER's wrath. It was as if Leon blinked and Cloud was in front of him, in his _very_ personal space, examining only the crazy man knew what. Leon in turn noticed that, while Cloud's eyes glowed the colour of a clear summer sky, there were some flecks of gold and purple near the pupil and a slight, vague ring of green flecks around the outside; not the acid green they had been earlier when he had decided to redecorate.

Leon blinked again and Cloud was gone with a whisper of cloth. It was only when the blond's hunting presence was gone that the exSEED realized that his breathing was a bit faster than normal and his heart was racing.

Cloud had made him nervous, and Leon wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

* * *

**A/N: **Most people use German as the given language of Nibelheim. With the way language evolves, and the way the whole story is very Norse influenced, I figured the language base was probably Old Norse (Old Language) to Norse (Old Nibel) that evolved to German (Nibel) and then English as the 'Common' language spoken by Shin-Ra controlled land. The word Tifa calls Cloud can be translated to either "vagabond" or "offspring of a wolf". Cloud calls Tifa the "daughter of a cow" and a "good for nothing". In Norse, and it's archaic counterpart Old Norse, it was very insulting to be called the son or daughter of an animal of anykind. He tells Leon to "go f0_0 yourself"**.  
**

_Posted 3March2013  
_


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